Candid Camerupt! (LAoPtS)
Plot On their way to Fallarbor Town, Ash and his friends grow weary as they walk through a desert with no water left. Pikachu faints due to heat exhaustion, and soon the other four do the same. They are brought to an isolated farmhouse by Camerupt and Victoria, and quickly recover after a sip of water. Victoria and her family—Victor, Vicky, and Vivi—are farmers, and admit they don't get visitors often. Victoria adds that her eldest son Vito, who left two months earlier on a quest of his own to become the Hoenn League Champion. Meanwhile Team Rocket are trapped in the heat of the desert too. Soon they collapse from exhaustion, through Vito, who is passing by, gives them food and water. James says Vito should be getting home, but Vito explains that his situation is a bit complicated. He doesn’t want to disappoint his family after realizing that he prefers raising and taking care of Pokémon rather than battling with them. James empathizes with Vito since he ran away from home after not living up to his family's expectations, and offers to help Vito out. After Ash and the others recover, they offer to do something in return for the help they received. In response, the family reintroduces themselves as the Winstrate family, and challenge the group to a four-on-four Pokémon battle. Vivi adds that because there is no one else around, they get bored battling each other. Ash points out that Max doesn’t have any Pokémon. In response Max declares that he will simply borrow one of Ash’s Pokémon. With that sorted, the Winstrate escort the group over to their purpose-built battlefield, complete with stadium seating and lights. The battle starts its first round with Victor and his Zigzagoon versus Brock and his Mudkip. Mudkip opens with a Water Gun, which Zigzagoon dodges. Zigzagoon shockingly responds with a Thunderbolt, ending the battle with just that one move. Vivi explains that since there are no power plants around, the family taught Zigzagoon that move to generate power for them. The second round begins with Victoria and Roselia versus May and Beautifly. May immediately gets fired up by Roselia due to her rival Drew having a Roselia as well. Beautifly whips up a Gust quickly followed by Silver Wind, both of which hit their target and Roselia goes down, ending the battle. Vicky is disappointed in Victoria’s efforts, uttering under her breathe that she should have gone with another Pokémon Max and Corphish take on Vivi and her Marill in the third clash. Max has trouble concentrating because he has a crush on Vivi, but he quickly regains his composure when Brock calls out to him. Max tries to instruct Corphish to wait for Marill to attack, and block with Harden to exhaust its opponent. However, Corphish doesn't listen, and batters Marill with its pincers to win the round. Vivi gets angry with Max and says she hates him, breaking Max's heart. The final match is between Ash and Vicky, though since the Winstrate family has lost two of the three rounds, the worst-case scenario for Ash is that the battle ends in a tie. Meanwhile, Vito and the Rocket trio arrive at the front of the house, with James continuing to be confident that he can talk to Vito's grandmother, Vicky, about Vito not becoming Hoenn League Champion. Since the house is empty, Vito assumes that the family is on the Pokémon battlefield, so they go there and begin watching the battle between Ash and Vicky in hiding. Vicky sends out her Camerupt and while Ash chooses Pikachu and immediately sends out a Thunderbolt, which is a direct hit. However, since Camerupt is a Ground-type, the Thunderbolt has no effect. Ash and Pikachu try again with a Quick Attack, which knocks Camerupt to the ground. Vicky orders it to get up and asks it to show its strength for Vito, unaware her grandson is watching the match. Camerupt gets up and uses Sandstorm, followed by a Take Down, but Pikachu lands an Iron Tail to the face first. Vito and the rest of the family pull out hard hats and warn the others to find cover, and Vicky reveals that Camerupt have a nasty habit of getting uncontrollably angry after being hit in the face and use Eruption. Sure enough that's what happens leaving Ash and his friends to run in fear of the flaming rocks from Eruption, with a couple of the rocks hitting Team Rocket. In anger they take off, leaving Vito to talk to his grandmother on his own. Camerupt continues to chase Pikachu around the field with its Eruption going off, but Pikachu trips on a ledge and narrowly evades being trampled. Camerupt, however, continues to rampage straight towards the family's crops, so Vito sends out his Alakazam and tells it to use Rain Dance to stop Camerupt. The wet weather instantly calms Camerupt in time, stopping it before reaching the crops. No one realizes where the rain came from and assume it was luck. Thankful, Vicky concedes the battle to Ash, but the joy doesn't last long Team Rocket appear in their balloon and take Pikachu. Vito realizes that the three aren't as good as he thought, and they announce how grateful they are to Vito for leading them there so they could capture Pikachu. The family is shocked to hear Vito's name, and Vito decides to pay Team Rocket back by using Alakazam's Psychic attack to rescue Pikachu. Team Rocket tries to steal Pikachu again, but Vito summons his Swellow and has it use Wing Attack on Team Rocket's balloon, sending them blasting off. Vicky recognizes the Swellow and knows Vito is hiding nearby. Vicky talks loudly enough for Vito to hear, and she admits she shouldn't have pushed Vito to become a Pokémon Trainer. She continues by saying that whatever Vito wants to accomplish, his family is right behind him. Vito is thankful for his grandmother's words, and without revealing himself, he leaves to make his dreams come true. Ash and the others get ready to leave, so as a send-off the family puts their hard hats on again and has Camerupt use Eruption. The group runs off in fear, continuing on their journey to Fallarbor Town.